Here's another utility I've been working on that makes it very easy to set up and manage connections to 2 separate ADSL accounts on the same PC (just one ADSL line and modem required). It automatically routes all local traffic through one connection and all other traffic through the other. This is very useful if you download a lot of content locally as you can make use of a fairly cheap "local only" IS account (such as the one offered by openweb) for all your local stuff while using another (I'd recommend a SAIX based account) for international. Because the traffic is separated automatically you don't use up your valuable international Gigs on local access.

IS accounts provide access to the wonderful IS news server (news.is.co.za) which provides loads of great content, while SAIX accounts provide more reliable and speedier international connections no matter what the weather.

Route Sentry is specially designed for South Africans who want to make use of 2
ADSL accounts on the same PC at the same time, with the one account being used
for local access only and the other for international. Most people are put off
using such a setup due to the inconvenience of having to manually set up the IP
routing tables after each new connection (due to ISPs allocating dynamic IP
addresses). Route Sentry makes it easy.

It will monitor your 2 connections and automatically route South African traffic
through the “local” account while directing all other traffic through the
“international” account. It will automatically reconnect if either connection is
dropped (which at the moment happens at least once every 24 hrs) and keep traffic
flowing through the correct connections even if the IP addresses are changed
after reconnecting.

SETTING UP YOUR ADSL CONNECTIONS

To make use of this program you must install the RASPPPOE protocol (see http://raspppoe.com for more info) on your PC and use it to establish “Dial Up”
style connections for each of your ADSL accounts. Please check the RASPPPOE web
site for details on exactly how to do this.

Note that your ADSL modem will have to be put into “bridge” or “modem” mode for
the protocol to work. Also note that your ADSL modem should not be configured to
automatically connect to your ISP as this may prevent the RASPPPOE protocol from
“seeing” it. It should also be noted that the modem does not have to be directly
connected to your PC as this protocol will work just as well if the modem is
connected to a hub or switch on your network. This makes it possible to share the
modem between different PCs on your network for different simultaneous PPPOE
connections.

Important: You must set the number of lines (WAN endpoints) in the PPPOE protocol
properties to 2 or more otherwise you will get an error that the device is busy
when you try to “dial” the second connection. When testing the connection for the
first time you must select the ‘save password’ option on the “Connect” dialog,
otherwise Route Sentry won’t be able to automatically connect for you.

Warning: If you previously used your ADSL modem in router mode you wouldn’t have
had to worry too much about your PC being vulnerable to internet threats as the
modem itself would have acted as a firewall. Using the modem in “modem/bridge” mode
however, means that your PC will be directly connected to the internet when next
you “dial up”, so making use of a software firewall is highly recommended (such as
the built in Windows XP firewall).

“Local Connection to use”
Select the connection to be used for local access.

“Automatically reconnect local connection when disconnected”
If ticked Route Sentry will automatically attempt to reconnect if the connection is
dropped. It will also cause it to automatically connect when Route Sentry starts up
if the connection is not currently connected.

“Disconnect Local”/”Connect Local”
This button either connects or disconnects the local connection. Note that if
“Automatically reconnect” is ticked then the connection will be automatically
reconnected after disconnecting.

“International Connection to use”
Select the connection to be used for international access.

“Automatically reconnect international connection when disconnected”
If ticked Route Sentry will automatically attempt to reconnect if the connection is
dropped. It will also cause it to automatically connect when Route Sentry starts up
if the connection is not currently connected.

“Disconnect International”/”Connect International”
This button either connects or disconnects the international connection. Note that
if “Automatically reconnect” is ticked then the connection will be automatically
reconnected after disconnecting.

“Automatically set up routes when both connections connected”
If ticked Route Sentry will automatically configure your IP routing table to route
traffic through the appropriate connection when both connections are connected.

“Minimize on Startup”
If ticked Route Sentry will automatically minimize to the system tray on startup.

“Set up Routes Now”
Click on this button to force the routing table to be updated immediately. Note that
both connections must be active for this to work.

1. After reconnecting and receiving a new IP address the old default routes are not removed so the local/international routing may fail. If you notice this the workaround for the moment is to run a "route delete 0.0.0.0" command from the command prompt. Then click on the 'Set up Routes Now' button to rebuild the routes.

2. In some cases when the program reconnects a connection it can fail and the connection stays in a 'connecting' or 'disconnecting' state. Not sure why this happens but am investigating.

if possible in future versions, could you let one program like ie for example use one connection and other program little utorrent use the other connection at the same time?

i downloaded this app, but it only uses one connection for everything and the other one stays idle.

thanks very much to, the concept and application is very impressive!!

Setting up the routing tables affects the entire system, so I'm not sure if it's possible to force an app to use one connection or another unless the app itself supports an option to select which interface it listens on.

If only one connection is working you might have problem #1 that I mentioned previously (try a route delete 0.0.0.0 followed by a 'set up routes now' click), or simply restart windows and try again. Also check the log for any errors and let me know what you find.

Is there any way I can keep one pppoe connection live on my router as devices like my tivo / psp and notebook connect directly to it?

If your router supports it I suppose you can. I've heard of other people on the forums with modems that support pppoe while still in router mode. I know for a fact that my Netgear DG632 doesn't support such a mode.

Sounds sweet for all the n00bs. I'll stick to my mikrotik box for doing this...

Mikrotik FTW!

Are you saying that a mikrotik router can be configured to connect to multiple pppoe connections and do this type of routing automatically? If so it sounds like the best solution to this type of problem...